.224 52gr Hornady BTHP Match

Okay not a huge selection at my local supplier so I picked up a box of these to develop some loads for my Remington 700 ADL .223. Initial load development was at 100 yards and yielded a .6” group at 24.5grs of powder. So I set up for group 2 and worked in 1 grain increments forward and back from 24.5 and shot a .6 group again with 24.5 and a .3” group at 24.6. I did a confirm loading and went back and shot a .5” again with the 24.6. So now that I have worked this up it dawned on me that I was using a match bullet and not a game bullet. I will use this rifle for varminting and paper punching. Will this bullet be sufficient for game or do I need to start over with a game type bullet. My varmints include wild dogs, armadillos, possums, coyotes etc..., with coyotes and wild dogs being my biggest varmint.

I don't know about Hornady but Sierra does not recommend using match bullets on live "targets." But they do make a blitzking bullet that has the explosive expansion of a varmint bullet with the accuracy of a MatchKing bullet (I tried them in my Remington 40XB Rangemaster and it was true!) You may want to give them a try.

B/B,
I have killed a ton of crows with the .22-250 using Sierra's 52gr HPBT Match bullet and with the .223 using the 69gr SMK and Nosler Competition bullets. For larger critters, I'd probably stick with head shots only. JohnnyK.

Have shot several deer with them the 52 grain hornady match bullet. If you can put them where they need to go, they work fine. Put them in a place that needs alot of tissue damage, you will have problems. All the deer that were shot were one shot kills to the neck. Shot one in the heart/lungs and it went less than 15 yards. I was using a 22-250 with the bullets, so the velocity was higher. For the 223 I would say they would work fine for coyotes and like size animals.